This is an image of the Andromeda Galaxy, along with its satellite galaxies M32 and M110, taken with my FS60C using my SBIG ST-8XE CCD camera all mounted on my NJP mount.  The two satellite galaxies are analogous to our Large and Small Magellanic clouds.

M51- the Whirlpool galaxy

M51 is a grand design spiral galaxy (Hubble classification Sc) in Canes Venatici.  It is seen essential face-on to us allowing us to see the spiral structure quite easily.  It is actually two galaxies, which are separately identified as NGC 5194, the large spiral galaxy, and NGC 5195, the small, possibly elliptical galaxy on the right.  For NGC 5194, two long spiral arms can be seen extending between 1 and 1 1/4 turn from the nucleus.  The lower pictures are a comparison of the detail of my picture with an image of M51 taken with the Hubble Space Telescope (my image on the left) (http://heritage.stsci.edu/2005/12a/index.html).  Pink HII regions can be seen studding the arms, although they are more obvious in the Hubble photograph.  The bridge between the NGC 5194 and 5195 can be seen, although it is thought that this is actually between NGC 5194 and us.  Detail can be seen in the dust clouds in this smaller galaxy as well as in the major dust lanes in NGC5194.  The limiting magnitude in this image is about 18.5 and is corroborated by the presence on the image of the easily visible IC 4277 (magnitude 15.6), an edge-on spiral galaxy.  Further adjustments of the brightness allows us to see objects below 20th magnitude.

The image is 8x15 minute subframes for luminance, 6x10 minute subframes for blue and 6x6 minute subframes for red and green for a total of 120 minutes luminance, 60 minutes blue, 36 minutes each green and red.

M63- the Sunflower galaxy

M63 (Figure 3) is a flocculent spiral galaxy (Hubble classification Sb) also in Canes Venatici, and is actually in the same local group with M51.  When compared to M51, we see it at about a 30^o angle, it does not have well defined spiral arms, and it contains far fewer HII regions, which are the hallmarks of regions of rapid star birth.  There is a complex web of dark areas in the spiral disk, either dust clouds or areas of reduced star formation compared to the brighter star clouds adjacent to them.  The central area, which is much brighter, has a long axis of about 1.7 arcminutes.  As above, the lower pictures are a comparison of the detail of my picture with an image taken with the Subaru Telescope (my image on the left)(http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0006/m63_subaru_big.jpg).

The image is 7x15 minute subframes for luminance, 7x8 minute subframes for blue and 7x5 minute subframes for red and green for a total of 105 minutes luminance, 56 minutes blue, 35 minutes each green and red.

M82

M82 (Hubble classification Irr) is an irregular starburst galaxy in Ursa Major. The major features of this galaxy are seen as dark material overlaying the otherwise smooth structure of the galaxy.  A slight warping of the galaxy at the ends seems to be present.  This could be due to the gravitational interaction of M82 with a nearby galaxy, M81.  This gravitational interaction may also be responsible for the burst of star formation taking place in the center of the galaxy.  This starburst is driving material out of the galactic center as superwinds, which are visible in the hydrogen alpha.  To show these, 220 minutes of hydrogen alpha light was added 50:50 to the red channel of the image.  The lower pictures are a comparison of the detail of my picture with an image of M82 taken with the Hubble Space Telescope (my image on the left)(http://heritage.stsci.edu/2006/14/big.html). 

The image is 7x10 minute subframes for luminance, 6x5 minute subframes for blue, green and red, and 11x20 minute subframes for hydrogen alpha for a total of 70 minutes luminance, 30 minutes blue and green and 30 minutes of red mixed 50:50 with 220 minutes of hydrogen alpha.

M87

M87 is a giant elliptical galaxy (Hubble classification E1) in Virgo.  This is a monster of a galaxy, weighing in at several trillion solar masses and gravitationally dominating the Virgo cluster.  One of the most interesting things about the galaxy is the optical jet.  This jet is being ejected by the supermassive black hole from the galactic center.  In this case, the very thin part of the jet nearer the center is not visible, but two portions farther out are clearly visible.  This jet has the unusual property of displaying superluminal motion, that is, it appears to be going faster than light.  However, this is not due to violating any of the laws of the universe, but to geometry.  Also, visible are several of the multitudes of globular clusters that orbit around this huge galaxy. The lower pictures are a comparison of the detail of my picture with an image of M87 taken at the Advanced Observers Program at Kitt Peak National Observatory (my image on the left)(http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/observers/m87.html).

The image is 7x10 minute subframes for luminance, 6x8 minute subframes for blue and 6x5 minute subframes for red and green for a total of 70 minutes luminance, 48 minutes blue, 30 minutes each green and red.

M109

 M109 is a barred spiral galaxy (Hubble classification Sbc) in Ursa Major.  Compared to many of the other galaxies that I imaged, this has relatively few interesting visible structures.  It has two spiral arms that begin at the ends of the bar-one wrapping around about 75% of the way and the other wrapping about 50% of the way.  There is a third spiral arm that does not seem to attach to the end of the bar, but begins about halfway across.  Two of the arms seem to bifurcate, although it could also be that these are independent arms that are more tightly wound.  A few knots of stars are visible in the arms, although there doesn’t seem to be any obvious HII regions in this galaxy.  The greater distance (55 million light years) also makes this galaxy dimmer and less distinct.  The lower pictures are a comparison of the detail of my picture with a picture from the SEDS website and was taken with the 0.9m telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory (my image on the left)(http://www.seds.org/messier/more/m109_more.html).

The image is 10x10 minute subframes for luminance, 4x8 minute subframes for blue and 4x5 minute subframes for red and green for a total of 100 minutes luminance, 32 minutes blue, 20 minutes each green and red.

NGC 4038 + 4039- the Antennae

NGC 4038 and 4039 (Hubble classification SBm) are gravitationally-interacting galaxies in Corvus.  These are two galaxies in turmoil.  Not only are their structures warped by each others gravity, but they are lit up by new hot blue stars and red HII region.  Not shown in my image, are the two extended arms of stars being thrown out of the galaxies.  The two yellow regions are the cores of the respective galaxies.  Dark material can be seen at several places in both galaxies, especially between them and in loops in the body of NGC 4038.  The five large blue spots in NGC 4038 and three red spots in NGC 4039 are clearly resolved by the Hubble into bright star-forming regions.  In NGC 4039, only the smallest trace of the barred spiral structure that it once had is visible as a spiral arm coming out of the core towards the bottom of the image.  The lower pictures are a comparison of the detail of my picture with an image of the Antennae taken with the Hubble Space Telescope (my image on the left) (http://heritage.stsci.edu/2006/46/index.html). 

The image is 6x10 minute subframes for luminance, 4x10 minute subframes for blue and 4x6 minute subframes for red and green for a total of 60 minutes luminance, 40 minutes blue, 24 minutes each green and red.

NGC 4565

NGC 4565 (Hubble classification Sb) is the largest of the edge-on spiral galaxies and is found in Coma Bernices.  I estimate that it is 13.3 arcminutes in length and 2 arcminutes across the bulge.  Since we are observing this galaxy on edge, many of the features of more face-on galaxies like M51 and M63 are not visible.  However, the dark dust lanes, which seem to be found in most if not all edge-on galaxies, are clearly visible.  This dust has substantially reddened the light from the galaxy (compare to M51, which is quite blue by comparison).  The dust visible on the upper side of the galaxy seems to trace the lines of spiral arms.  The lower pictures are a comparison of the detail of my picture with an image of NGC4565 taken at the Advanced Observers Program at Kitt Peak National Observatory (my image on the left)(http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0404/n4565_hugo_full.jpg).

The image is 6x15 minute subframes for luminance, 6x8 minute subframes for blue and 6x5 minute subframes for red and green for a total of 90 minutes luminance, 48 minutes blue, 30 minutes each green and red.

NGC 5985, 5982 and 5981

These galaxies, while not officially a galactic group, reside near each other at approximately 100 million light years making them the most distant objects that I imaged in this project.  NGC 5985 with its bright core has been discovered to be a Seyfert galaxy with an active galactic nucleus.  Also of note in this image are the number of smaller galaxies that can be seen.  The lower pictures are a comparison of the detail of my picture with an image of this group taken by Stefan Heutz, Wolfgang Ries, Cord Scholz and found at the Astronomy Picture of the Day site (my image on the top)(http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060506.html).

NGC 5985 (left), 5982 (middle) and 5981 (left)-a group of three galaxies

The image is 8x15 minute subframes for luminance, 6x8 minute subframes for blue and 6x5 minute subframes for red and green for a total of 120 minutes luminance, 48 minutes blue, 30 minutes each green and red.

This is a luminance only image of the Deerlick group taken at the Sacramento Valley Astronomical Society dark sky site at 5000 feet in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.  This is a nice deep image as evidenced by the presence of an approximately 19th magnitude galaxy visible at approximately 8 o'clock from the brightest star in the upper right of the image.  Objects with magnitudes below 20th magnitude are visible. The relative sizes of these four galaxies is misleading as the NGC 7335 and 7336, the small galaxies to the upper left and upper center of the main galaxy, are more distant at about approximately 300 million light years and NGC 7337, the smallest galaxy to the upper right of the main galaxy, is even more distant at approximately 400 million light years.  These are much further than the large foreground galaxy at approximately 37 million light years.  All these distance are derived from the radial velocities found in the NED database and assuming a Hubble constant of 71 km/second/Megaparsec (Hubble's_law), which is a reasonable value for now. 

The image is 8x15 minute subframes and was taken using the Autodither Plugin for CCDSoft by Paul Kanevsky.  This was the first image with which I used FITS liberator, a Photoshop add-on from ESA/ESO/NASA.

The image was taken using a Mewlon 250 with a SBIG ST-8XE CCD camera all mounted on an NJP mount.